Conveyer



Jan. 8,' 1924. 1,480,067

c. F. HEINKEL CONVEYER Filed March 9. 1922 zz m I NVENTOR Patented Jan.8, 1924.

PTNT

teats? CHRISTIAN F. HEINKEL, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE STONEYFOUNDRY ENGINEERING AND EQUIPMENT 00., OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATIONOF OHIO.

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'[0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHRISTIAN F. HEIN- KEL, a citizen of the UnitedStates, and resident of Cleveland, county of Cuyahoga, and State ofOhio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Conveyers, of whichthe following is a specification.

My invention relates to conveyers which have track wheels adapted torunon rails and connected by said chain links.

The object of my invention i a simple, durable, and eflicient conveyer.

I attain this object by the mechanism illustrated in the one perspectiveview on the accompaning drawing.

Heretofore it has been customary, on conveyers, to employ comparativelywide rollers running on a track of some kind and carrying the load. Ithas been found that such structure is not as efficient as it might beand that the rollers frequently stick and either prevent the operationof the conveyer as a whole or increase the already high friction of theparts.

The present invention aims to eliminate these disadvantages by usingseparate track wheels and connect them by shafts so that the rollingradius of the wheels is greater than the resistance radius of theshafts. .With such an arrangement, the wheels roll along the trackeasily and do not stick under ordinary circumstances and the friction ofthe chain is reduced to a considerable extent.

The conveyer illustrated in the accompanying drawing is of the floortype and may be so sunk into the ground that the top of the rail arelevel with the floor.

Referring now particularly to the drawm The lower track rails 10 aremounted on the walls of the pit 11 and are interrupted as shown toprovide the spaces 12 between them.

The cross rails 13 are also mounted on the walls of the pit 11 and carrythe upper track rails 14 substantially in alignment with the rails 10.

The bearing blocks 15 are also mounted on the walls of the pit 11.

The shafts 16 are journaled in the bearing blocks 15 and the sprockets17 are secured to these hafts substantially in alignment with the rails14.

The conveyer chain is composed of the track wheels 18, the shafts 19,and the links 20. I

Each shaft 19 is journaled in a pair of the wheels 18 and each pair ofthe shaft 19 is connected by a pair of links alternately on the insideand on the outside of the wheels. The whole chain structure may be heldtogether by cotter pins or other means well known in the art.

The track wheels 18 travel on the rails 14 and also on the rails 10 andare guided from one rail to the other by the sprockets 17, the teeth ofwhich engage the track wheels directly, so that the chain is propelledby the sprockets in either direction as occasioned by the rotationthereof due to the power applied by the belt 23 and the pulley 24secured to one of the shafts 16.

The flanges 22 on the wheels 18 prevent the same from running off ofeither the rails 14 and 10 or the sprockets 17.

The spaces 12 are provided for the purpose of permitting the chainto'sag down and thereby take up the slack thereof.

When the chain so sags down into the space 12, between the interruptedrails 10,

the slack thereof is taken up at a point where it will not interferewith the proper operation of the conveyer. If this space 12 is notprovided and the lower rail or track is made continuous, the chain willsag at the sprockets and the stretch thereof will, in time, besuflicient to permit the chain to run off of the sprockets unless anadjusting means is provided. In the present invention, no such adjustingmeans is needed, the chain is always provided with sufiicient ten sionfor proper operation, and requires no attention; and furthermore, thistension is always uniform, is governed by the number and weight of thoselinks which span the space 12, is provided automatically by the weightof these links as they pass over this space, and requires no attention.

In the conveyor shown, no provision is made for carrying a load. Suchload may be placed directly on the shafts 19 since they need not rotate;or such load may be carried by the links 20; or special contrivances maybe attached to the load to engage either the shafts 19 or the links 20or the wheels 18. The nature of the load to be carried by the conveyershould determine the best method of providing means for carrying anyparticular kind of a load.

It will be notedthat the vl0 1d iscarrie d by the comparatively si allshatts le ph gfiphe comparatively large track wheels 20 are j ournaledon the shafts 1 9 that the sprocke ts 17"engage the track heelsdirectly; l fd that all similar parts areduplicates; 'Such anarrangement provides economy of manufacture, simplicity, durability, andhigh er? ficiency.

I claim 1. A conveyer comprising, a pair of up per track rails and apair of lower track rails, track Wheels arranged in pairs adapted to runon said track rails, aplu'rality of shafts extending'across both ofsaid-pairs of track rails, each of saidpairs oftrack Wheels journaled onthe, ends of one-of said shafts, and each of said;shaftsconnected to thenext of said shafts by one pair of links.

of these pairs of Wheels journaleclon a shaft and each pair of theseshafts connected by links placed alternately on the'outside and on theinsideof'these track Wheels, sprock ets engaging said'wheels, andmeansfor rotating sald sprockets,

3. A conveyer comprising, upper andloWer tracks, anendless chaincomposed; of

pairs of track wheels and-each ofthesepairs ofwheelsvjournaled on ashaft each pair of these shafts connectedby links" placed alternately onthe outside and on the inside of a Wheel P OQlSQtS at ter nd a rl ibks.and i t fmed at. heres and the teethofth's sprockets en ag n said trackWheels, and means for rotating-said sprockets.

4;. conyeyer comprising, upper and lower tracks, an endless chaincomposed of pairs of track Wheels and each of these'pairs of Wheelsjournaledi on a shaft and each pair of these shafts-connected by linksplacedalternately on-the outside and on the inside of these wheels,sprockets at the outer ends of: said-tracks and intermediate thereof andthe teeth of these sprockets engaging these Wheels to operatesaid chainand guide the same from one of said tracks to the other, andin'eansrotating said sprockets.

5; Ajconyeyer including, a' chain and rollers therefor, an upper trackfor said rollers, and alower track for said rollers interrupted ,toprovide a gap or space therein to permit said chain to'sag and therebytake up the slack, thereof;

6. An endless conveyer chain having pairs of track heels and each pairmounted on a shaft, andiveach pair of said shafts connected by linksplaced, alternately on the outside and-onethe inside of said Wheels.

CHRISTIAN Fj HEINKEL.

